Publications by authors named "Alex Echeverria-Vega"

This study demonstrated the biodegradation of two different brands of cigarette butts (CBs), which are primarily composed of cellulose acetate, by four distinct microorganisms. These included the white rot fungus , the brown rot fungus , and the bacteria and . After 31 days of treatment, weight loss measurements revealed a mass loss of 24-34%, where exhibited the greatest efficacy in terms of mass loss for both brands of CBs.

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Several species within the Acidithiobacillus (At.) genus can derive energy from oxidizing ferrous iron and sulfur. Two bacterial strains according to their 16S rRNA gene sequences closely related to At.

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Salinity abiotic stress is increasing day by day due to continuous global warming and climate change. This is also becoming one of the major causes behind the reduction in crop production. Plant-bacteria interaction plays an essential role in improving crop yield without using any chemical fertilizers.

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Thermophilic bacteria able to survive extreme temperature stress are of great biotechnological interest due to their extracellular production of bioactive molecules as a part of a survival strategy, or by intracellular modifications. In the present study, thermophilic CamB6, isolated from a Chilean hot spring, was studied for the formation of different stress response molecules. The polymeric pigment produced by the bacterial strain was characterized by different physicochemical techniques.

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A mathematical first-order difference equation was designed to predict the dynamics of the phage-bacterium adsorption process in aquatic environments, under laboratory conditions. Our model requires knowledge of bacteria and bacteriophage concentrations and the measurements of bacterial size and velocity to predict both the number of bacteriophages adsorbed onto their bacterial host and the number of infected bacteria in a given specific time. It does not require data from previously performed adhesion experiments.

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Background: Thermophilic bacilli in both aerobic or facultative anaerobic forms have been isolated for over a hundred years from different mesophilic or thermophilic environments as they are potential source of bioactive secondary metabolites. But the taxonomic resolution in the genus at species or at strain level is very challenging for the insufficient divergence of the 16S rRNA genes. One such recurring problem is among , .

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Prognostic markers for cancer can assist in the evaluation of survival probability of patients and help clinicians to assess the available treatment modalities. Gallbladder cancer (GBC) is a rare tumor that causes 165 087 deaths in the world annually. It is the most common cancer of the biliary tract and has a particularly high incidence in Chile, Japan, and northern India.

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This work details a protocol for recovering bacteriophages from intertidal sessile mussels and testing their lytic activity against pathogenic bacteria. Although bacteriophages were highly abundant in coastal filter-feeding organisms, they were not detectable in the surrounding water column. This difference reflects the high filtering rate of the mussels, which capture and concentrate high amounts of bacteria, generating an ideal environment for bacteriophages.

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Potential benthic habitats of early Mars lakes, probably oligotrophic, could range from hydrothermal to cold sediments. Dynamic processes in the water column (such as turbidity or UV penetration) as well as in the benthic bed (temperature gradients, turbation, or sedimentation rate) contribute to supply nutrients to a potential microbial ecosystem. High altitude, oligotrophic, and deep Andean lakes with active deglaciation processes and recent or past volcanic activity are natural models to assess the feasibility of life in other planetary lake/ocean environments and to develop technology for their exploration.

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Laguna Negra and Lo Encañado are two oligotrophic Andean lakes forming part of the system fed by meltwater from distinct glacial tongues of the Echaurren glacier in central Chile, which is in a recession period. The recent increase in temperature and decline in precipitation have led to an increase of glacial meltwater and sediments entering these lakes. Although the lacustrine systems are also hydrogeologically connected, the limnology of the lakes is strongly controlled by the surface processes related to the respective sub-watersheds and hydrology.

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The bacterium Vibrio ordalii is best known as the causative agent of vibriosis outbreaks in fish and thus recognized for generating serious production losses in aquaculture systems. Here we report for the first time on the isolation and the genome sequencing of phage vB_VorS-PVo5, infectious to Vibrio ordalii ATCC 33509. The features as well as the complete genome sequence and annotation of the Vibrio phage are described; vB_VorS-PVo5 consists of a lineal double stranded DNA totaling ~ 80.

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